Black Hope Knights
by cressray
Summary: 5 gamers get thrown into the world of SAO, quickly finding that their new reality isn't as pretty as they once thought. Follow Shinkou and his guildmates as they aid Kirito and company in the conquest of all 100 floors of the death game Sword Art Online. (Please R&R as new chapters are being created on a regular basis and I try to work reader input into my ideas.)
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Here it is. The first chapter of my SAO fanfic. So as to not spoil anything, I'll be posting ANs at the bottom of every chapter to explain things that might not be obvious to everyone, or might be part of my own take on how things in SAO run smoothly. As this is an OC centered fanfic, please note that main characters will be showing up for interactions, and a few might end up having POV chapters about how they view and interact with my OCs. See you at the bottom!**

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

My first time logging in to SAO started effortlessly. I had come here with two friends from the real world, and as we walked through the town looking for merchants we began chatting about the features of the game we liked so far. Only a few minutes after I had finished equipping my brand new longsword and basic armor, a forced teleport started, whisking everyone back to the main square where players had dropped into at login. I stared up at the rapidly expanding blood red hexagons with System Announcement written on them in bold black letters, and the sound of teleporting players was quickly replaced by scared murmurs and people shouting about events and jokes. But even that noise stopped when a substance reminiscent of blood began to leak from the hexagons across the sky, forming a hooded figure that started speaking in an ominous voice.

"I am Kayaba Akihiko, the creator or SAO and the sole person who can control this world. Many of you may have noticed the there is no longer a way to log out through the menu. This is not a bug, but rather a feature of the game itself."

The crowd erupted into outrage. We could no longer get out by ourselves. I could already predict the next words from Kayaba's mouth.

"In addition, if anyone on the outside attempts to log you out forcibly, the Nervegears you are wearing will transmit a microwave signal to your brain, killing you instantly. Several people on the outside have ignored this warning and as a result 127 of your comrades have been killed."

Another series of shouts rose from the crowd.

"There is also no longer any way to revive in the game. The cathedral stone will now have the username of every player in the game, and each one will be crossed of as the player dies. As an added feature, when your HP reaches 0, you will die in real life. This ends the tutorial for Sword Art Online. If you open your inventories, you will find a gift from me has been added to your items."

Kayaba ended his speech and faded back into the sky as the red hexagons started disappearing. I did as he had said, following the crowd around me, and pulled the hand mirror from my inventory. At once, the square began glowing and the players inside changed to show their real bodies.

I was the first in my group to speak. "…To remind us that death is real here." I murmured quietly. "Which means that from here on, levels and skills will mean everything."

Sayoko and Tetsuya nodded in silent agreement.

"The fields around town will be hunted dry within the week." Tetsuya whispered back.

"Between the three of us we should be able to make it to the next town even at level 1." Sayoko chimed in.

"If we want to leave, we should start now and be more careful than usual." I replied quickly.

We couldn't lose any time if we wanted to level quickly. I grabbed their hands to prevent us from getting separated in the crowd, then began rushing to the city gates. Once outside the gates, I drew my longsword and slowed down, keeping one eye on my surroundings as I opened the menu and looked at the semi-transparent map. I picked the shortest possible route and marked it, tracing over the path with my finger a few times to memorize at least a small portion of it. Every time we encountered an enemy I found my eyes wandering to the top left corner of my HUD, keeping an eye on the three green bars located there.

* * *

"Sonic Dash" I activated the basic sword skill and rushed forward, cutting into the side of a boar and killing it.

"Nice one Kou-kun!" Tetsuya shouted into my ear.

"Watch your own back Tetsu." Sayoko hit him lightly on the head before blocking the wolf charging at him with a lance to its nose.

"I could've blocked that!" He waved his shield angrily before receiving my foot in his back, knocking him out of the way of another wolf. For the first time in a few hours I watched as my green bar decreased, turning yellow and stopping about halfway down the gauge. I clicked my tongue and spun my sword, the light orange glow becoming brighter.

"Spiral Raid" My sword continued spinning, cutting into the wolf several times before I stopped the rotations with my other hand, bringing the sword back down with both hands at once and watching as the wolf burst into fragments of data.

"That was amazing. I need to get myself a longsword if that's a basic skill." Tetsuya shouted, placing his hammer and shield on his back and striking my shoulder with hard yet friendly force. I nodded slightly in response; absentmindedly staring at the window displaying the experience and Col I had gained. I laughed at the incredibly low amount.

"We're going to be doing a lot of grinding, aren't we?" Sayoko asked quietly. She glared at Tetsuya as he attempted to make a perverted joke, forcing his mouth to close instantly.

"Just keep in mind that this is a death game. No one grinds alone, understand?"

I was used to leading guilds in previous games, Tetsuya and Sayoko serving as my faithful sub-leaders under me, making the order sound like a normal conversation to them.

By the time the sun set we had made it to the next city and settled into the cheapest inn we could find. Once I was sure the others were asleep, I quietly snuck outside and left the town, keeping its walls within sight at all times. When I looked at the clock for the first time, four hours had passed.

"Only six in four, huh? Basing that off a gradual increase of 9%, I could hit 12 by morning." I muttered to myself as I waited for the nearby enemies to respawn.

* * *

I woke up under a tree, my sword still tightly clutched in my hand.

"Wake up moron. We've got some questions for you."

I felt the cold, flat steel of Tetsuya's hammer against my cheek and forced my eyes open, blinking in the bright light of morning. I instinctively looked at my health bar before glancing at the clock.

"It's only 8:30. Leave me alone…" I pouted at him, rolling over and closing my eyes before realizing where I was and what I had been doing before I fell asleep.

"You went out on your own last night, didn't you?" Sayoko was trying her best to keep calm, but she either wasn't trying hard or was angrier than I thought.

"Is it not a leader's role to be stronger than his guildmates?"

"Only if he doesn't die because he's a hypocrite!"

"Sooo… how many levels _did_ you get last night?" Tetsuya asked, breaking the rising tension between Sayoko and myself.

"I'm almost to 15 after about 7 hours of continuous fighting." I smiled proudly at him and flashed a thumbs-up.

"You two are idiots." Sayoko said bluntly.

"We're also always the first two guild members to hit cap."

"That's because I'm always the healer."

"Then try to reach our level. We'll make it a bet and give you 50% of our Col if you can reach a higher level than me in a week."

"Deal. I'll make you guys _so_ poor."

Tetsuya and I glanced at each other, smiling widely.

**Well, that's the first chapter of awkwardly worded prologues finished. As promised, I'll be explaining things down here at the end of every chapter, this one included.**

**First off, character names. The SAO system is based off the Japanese language, so I decided to give the OCs Japanese names (plus I like how they sound anyway). I'll tell the character's full names as written (And in parenthesis I'll type the translation, separated into first and last by a comma). Please note that I'm putting the names into English format for the sake of readers who might not understand how Japanese names work. The main character is a young boy named Shinkou Raiousei (Death Light, Lightning King Star), and is age 18 upon logging into SAO. His long time childhood friend is Tetsuya Kurogane (Steel Sun, Black Iron) is also 18, and is dating the similarly aged third character, Sayoko Amegawa (Small Night Child, Rainy River), in real life. These three have been avid gamers since childhood, and for simplicity's sake, they made their usernames the katakana form of their first names.**

**Second, grinding terms. I myself am a gamer who is used to people automatically knowing a few basic terms within the games I play, and I ended up pushing this mindset onto my characters as well since they are gamers too. When Shinkou is standing outside the city while waiting for the monsters to respawn, he is talking about the number of levels he has gained in a certain amount of time, which is used as an indicator for whether you are being productive or not when grinding. The second part of his minor monologue is referring to a simple and obvious trait of level-based games, how much the needed experience rises at each level. Shinkou actually kept track of the requirements at each level and figured out almost exactly how much experience was needed for any given level. Later, during the argument when Shinkou wakes up, he speaks about "continuous fighting". This is a term used to refer to the amount of time spent being productive during a grind session, even if you're merely searching your inventory for better equipment or a potion you picked up a while ago. When he says he spent 7 hours continuously fighting, it actually means he spent at least a portion of that time adjusting equipment, searching his inventory, or resting while waiting for fresh enemies to spawn, which are all considered a productive use of time during a grind session, but are often viewed as wasted time by most players.**

**As a partial spoiler for the time-skip in between this chapter and the next, Shinkou and the group will be finding another ally they thought they had forgotten in the real world, and the four characters will start getting involved with each other more than they thought possible. Also, everyone begins discovering the potential for unique and pseudo-unique skills (I'll definitely need to explain how Shinkou and Kirito are different at the end of Chapter 2…).**


	2. Chapter 2: Of Weapons and Unique Skills

**This is a shorter chapter than what I usually put out, but it's a chapter all the same. See you at the bottom.**

**Chapter 2: Of Weapons and Unique Skills**

"Impact Circular" The scythe in my hand began spinning, my fingers barely guiding it through seven rotations. At the end of the rotations I let go of the scythe, the spirals guiding it into the air as I gripped my longsword in both hands, driving it through my opponent's chest a few times before catching the scythe and finishing both my attack and the enemy with a single diagonal slash.

"Unique weapons are freaking overpowered!" Tetsuya shouted from behind me, finishing his own enemy in near-perfect synchronization with my own kill.

"Says the god of shields…" I replied, making fun of the shield he had managed to equip in his cloak slot. His "cloak" was a small tower shield, and he protected his front with a dragonstone buckler, emphasizing speed over defense.

At the same instant, our two female party members finished a large group of lizardmen, their figures appearing from the center of a circle of breaking data.

"So, ladies… you think we could actually partner with the people we get along with? Working with this idiot makes me wonder if something's going to sneak up behind me." Tetsuya asked sheepishly, his usual outspoken demeanor thrown to the wayside in front of Sayoko.

"Says the one with the highest defense capabilities!" Yuuyu screeched into his ear before punching him hard in the head, his HP bar dropping slightly. "Besides, you don't get to call my husband an idiot without my permission!"

"You're his girlfriend, not his wife…" Tetsuya complained, clutching his jaw.

"That's in the real world. I'm his wife in here."

"The only difference is a ring."

"That just means that we act like a married couple without a ring."

"Aren't you supposed to be arguing with him?"

"Both of you need to calm down." I stepped in between them before things got more heated, placing a finger against Yuuyu's lips to keep her silent. "Until we defeat this death game, nothing in the real world matters. I formed this guild for the sole purpose of going back to our normal lives, not to listen to you two argue like an old couple."

"It's your fault you can't control yo-"

I cut Tetsuya off mid-sentence with a well-placed right hook, forcing him into the unconscious state.

"Sorry about that Sayocchi. He was starting to piss me off and I kinda hit him impulsively."

"Try to go easier on him next time." She complained quietly, giggling slightly as she picked her unconscious husband up.

"Then try to keep his language in check. I don't really enjoy it when he insults my Yu-chan like that."

I didn't think he'd be _that_ much of an ass."

"I know, but…" I paused for a moment, then decided to give up, knowing any further arguing would only strain everyone's relationships. "We don't have our shield god anymore, so I'm calling a full retreat until he wakes up."

The girls slowly nodded and spread out a bit, raising the likelihood that we wouldn't be ambushed. Every time an enemy appeared by itself I would throw my scythe in a wide arc, chopping off the enemy's legs before moving in with my longsword, making sure that my friends didn't have to fight too much.

**The end of chapter two and I still haven't introduced all the OCs yet.**

**To start off, I guess some clarification of what happened during the time skip is in order. I skipped over the first 20 floors for two reasons. First off, it allows me to skip over the meetings between Kirito's group and the OCs. Secondly, it means I don't have to write out twenty floors worth of uninteresting boss fights and grinding sessions (not that I'd write about those to begin with).**

**During the time skip, Shinkou and the group founded the guild "Kuro Kibou Kishidan" (Black Hope Knights) and it slowly evolved into a small group of players who desperately wanted out of the game and could match the standards that Shinkou had created for the guild. In doing this, the fourth OC, Yuuyu Yakuurei (Ghostly Dream, Night Sky Spirit) was able to find Shinkou and join the main group around him. Shortly after Yuuyu joining the guild, the main offense force of BHK found a hidden dungeon with an event boss in it. This boss dropped a scythe with a set of stat requisites that only Shinkou could meet, thus he ended up taking it. At the same time, Shinkou found a unique way to cheat the weapon system and began pseudo-wielding his trusty longsword alongside his new scythe (similar to how Kirito dual-wielded during the Alfheim arc by activating single weapon skills one after another). This new knowledge found its way to Tetsuya, who had become the self-appointed tank of the party, and eventually the group figured out how to attach a shield to his back and keep the defense modifier.**

**Now that that's cleared up, I can explain a few of the smaller details**

**Skills are ranked by their strength, which inherently comes from the amount of skill points and stats required to purchase the skill. Once purchased, the skill can be activated at will. During activation weapons will glow a set color based on the rank of the skill, so a common way of determining someone's strength and level without outright asking them is to see how much damage they do will certain skills. Each skill has a set modifier, enabling excessive amounts of damage based on how high the user's strength, agility, and dexterity are, essentially rewarding people who prefer to dump all of their level bonuses into one stat, which Shinkou has done with his agility.**

**I guess it's probably time to reveal everyone's weapons now that they've had 20 floors to decide on them. Shinkou will be continuing to swap through different weapon builds for the next few chapters, eventually deciding on pseudo-wielded knives and a katana. Tetsuya will be wielding a hammer and shield for the foreseeable future, though I might change his weapon later. Sayoko has a single-handed halberd and shield combo, and she'll be sticking with that for the rest of the story. Yuuyu has built herself for a double-handed axe, which is pretty intimidating in the hands of someone about the same height of her weapon. The final OC (who won't show up for a few more chapters) will have a very special weapon, though I'm still working out the base mechanics for it in my head. Despite this, I can promise that the fifth OC will be pretty badass even when she's standing in the background doing nothing.**

**With that said, it's time for my minor spoiler moment. In the next chapter people die off-screen and Shinkou gets a new reason to fight. For those of you who have seen the first few episodes of SAO, the scenario will be rather familiar to what Kirito went through, but will Shinkou become similarly depressed, or will he gain a few new skills to defeat Aincrad with? Find out in chapter 3, now with 100% less prologuing!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Black Hope Knights

**I've finally gotten around to typing up chapter 3! This chapter is a direct continuation of chapter 2, and I finally get to show off how Shinkou runs his guild and how quickly his personality shifts when in danger. See you at the bottom.**

**Chapter 3: The Black Hope Knights**

We returned to our base on the twenty-fifth floor, the most recently opened floor, and waited for our other members to return. I had created a list of guild rules, and the first one was to report to one of the three sub-leaders or myself at the end of the day, if only so I knew everyone was safe. Guild activities, including grinding and scavenging, ran from dawn till dusk every day, but it was the player's choice if they did anything. This gave everyone a general curfew, and it helped me figure out who needed help getting out of the dungeons.

I had finished putting together my list of people who were in the proper level range for the boss, having known of its location for a week since the Knights of Blood told us. I only had four members outside of my party who were ready, and I knew nobody would be leveling today other than those four. The only problem was that the sun had long since set and I hadn't had contact with them since breakfast, the only time the entire guild was guaranteed to be together. I called together the rest of the guild and told them what needed to be done, the fifteen other members silent as I stated my plan. We split into groups of four, one of the leaders and three other members per group. Normally I could pull off a rescue with just my party, but the twenty-fifth floor was a giant labyrinth that had taken three weeks for the top five guilds to fully map.

I led my group down a winding corridor, one of many that looked almost identical. My group had stopped for a quick rest at one of the few safe zones when we found the room. It was a horrible trap, a secret door in the wall that closed itself after you walked in. There was a single chest in the center of the room, but no signs that my guildmates had entered here. Once the door closed, high level golems swarmed in through secret doors in the walls, surrounding us in seconds.

"I'll cut a path to one of the walls. Fight with your backs to it and they can't surround you."

I drew my weapons and dashed toward one of the golems, impaling it on the tip of my sword while I used my scythe to block its counterattack. "Frontal Cannon" I kicked the golem as hard as I could, forcing it off my sword and into one of the others slowly closing in on us. "Requiem Impact" I slammed the pommel of my sword against another golem, then spun the blade several times before it turned into data. "Infinite Temporalis" My sword turned bright orange and I began stabbing at seemingly random angles in front of me, locking onto any enemy my blade touched until it turned into data.

When I finally broke through the enemies in our path we turned to face the remainder of them, our backs gently pressing against the wall behind us. There weren't many golems left, but we were running low on HP and potions, and I was beginning to fear dying for the first time since my first boss fight. I returned both of my weapons to their sheathes, then drew a rapier from a space between my cloak and back, the sheath resting horizontally against my waist. A small gasp escaped the lips of my subordinates as I drew my weapon, but I ignored them and dashed back into the fray, disappearing into the center of a fresh wave of golems.

"Infinite Temporalis Shining Nova Requiem Stampede" I began swapping through my sword skills, blasting through the seemingly endless wall of golems, praying to myself that my allies were safe. I kept swinging, managing to level up after a few kills. I checked my HP bar, figuring I had enough time to upgrade. I opened the menu, scrolling through the windows as I dodged around a pair of golems, completely preventing them from attacking. I selected my newest skill from the list and upgraded it, then closed the menus and activated it.

"Chaos Counter" My entire body began to glow bright red just before a blade went through my back. I looked up at my HP bar, barely surprised that I hadn't taken any damage from the attack. I smiled sadistically and turned to face my attacker, the edge of my blade impaling it, wiping out its entire HP bar in a single strike. I tried swinging at another one, barely denting its bar. In return, the golem's lane scratched my shoulder, reducing my own bar slightly. I could tell that my new skill was a powerful counter from how it worked, but I knew it was also very dangerous.

There were only three golems left, my allies fighting one while the other two continued attacking me, missing every strike and receiving a counterattack in return. I was confident enough to toy with them, leading the pair of golems to their partner. The unsuspecting golems followed me into my trap, the third one beginning to focus on me too. I smiled as they backed me into a corner, then I dashed forward and used the middle on as a launch pad, jumping onto its shoulder and landing behind them.

"Catharsis: Singularity" My sword turned black and began draining my HP bar, slowly trading my health for extra damage. When I had only one point remaining, I swung my sword, cutting through all three golems at once. As they turned into data I slumped to the ground, too exhausted to read my EXP gains or open the now unguarded chest in the middle of the room.

**After much consideration, I finally decided on what unique skills to give Shinkou, his counter abilities and catharsis skills. I'll explain the latter skill set in the next chapter, but just know that Shinkou's going to be taking a lot of self-inflicted damage throughout most major fights.**

**First off, I'll explain how guilds are set up. For a small price, anyone with a couple of willing people can start their own guild. The leader has absolute power over how the guild goes about their daily life, though most leaders give their members a fairly high degree of freedom. Sub-leaders are merely normal members who have been given special administrative power within the guild, though the power given is usually to help the leader run the guild properly. If a guild has rules, they must be followed by all members including the leader and sub-leaders. Guilds will often offer special bonuses to their members, such as free or reduced-price weapons and items, protection during grind sessions, and more opportunities to fight difficult bosses and event quests with competent players around the same level.**

**While I'm on the subject, I figure I'll explain how parties work in my eyes. A party can consist of between two and eight people, though most parties are four players who know each other. Within a party, players split into pairs who fight in tandem or take turns depending on the situation. The most common pairs are either good friends or lovers, though there are still some pairs that have little to no relationship with each other.**

**Tune in next week for a legitimate fight against the twenty-fifth floor boss, an explanation about Shinkou's catharsis skills, and the exact moment where the OCs realize that SAO isn't going to go easy on them anymore.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Dagger in the Dark

**The first boss fight of this fanfic and everybody manages to die… Oh, and Yuuyu might try to have a sensible conversation with Shinkou. Bonus points to anyone who knows what series I pulled Shinkou's katana skills from.**

**Chapter 4: A Dagger in the Dark**

I had swapped weapons yet again in preparation for the boss, and now a pair of daggers rested near my waist, my longsword and an old shield from Tetsuya waiting against my back. After surviving the trapped room we had found an exit and contacted the other groups, quickly finding that the guild members we were searching for had vanished from SAO permanently. The raid party of 40 stood in front of the gate that led to the boss room, listening to Heathcliff's plan.

"Everyone please split into groups of four and choose a partner, then discuss your plan with your group and tell me about any changes through your group leader." After stating his instructions, Heathcliff formed a group with Kirito, Asuna, and another member of the KoB, their group falling silent after a few seconds of strategizing. I got my guild members organized almost as fast, and since our strategies always left room for everything to go wrong we only needed a few seconds to work out our plan.

The bosses had seemed weaker recently, and considering the games the four of us had played before getting trapped in SAO, we were getting more cautious whenever we reached a landmark floor, unsure of when the boss fights would rise in difficulty despite knowing that they would at some point in the future.

After a while our party opened the door to the boss room and stepped inside. Once everyone was inside I gave a few basic instructions and dashed off to the right side of the room with Yuuyu, our actions mirrored on the left by Sayoko and Tetsuya. When we reached the center of the room a pair of gargoyles came to life, the giant stone soldier behind them drawing its sword in preparation for battle. I gave a small signal to Tetsuya and rushed toward the nearest gargoyle, my daggers at the ready. The soldier refused to join either battle, as though it assumed the gargoyles would win without its help. The gargoyle in front of me lashed out with its claws, narrowly avoiding my shoulder. "Lightning Instant" The dagger in my left hand moved so fast that it momentarily disappeared, lodging itself in a weak spot of the gargoyle's throat. "Perfect Lightning Instant" The dagger in my right hand seemed to split itself into three perfect images as it closed in on its target. The gargoyle screeched in pain once more as my second blade stabbed into it just to the side of my first. It stumbled backwards and pulled a stone hammer and shield from its back, then charged toward me once more. I pulled my own sword and shield from my back and dodged the hammer as it down at my head. I slammed my shield into the gargoyle's side and dashed behind it, noticing that it was based on power, not speed. I smiled slightly as I brought my blade down on the gargoyle's back. Even if I wasn't doing much damage, I had built myself for pure agility, so most enemies couldn't reach me anymore.

"Yuuyu, switch." I yelled back at her, dodging around a counterattack and slamming my shield into the gargoyle's side before dashing out, giving Yuuyu a chance to drive her giant axe down on its back for massive damage. Once I was a safe distance from the fight, I swapped my longsword and shield for a katana from my inventory and drank a swap potion.

"Switch!" Without waiting for a response I dashed back into the fight, now far slower than normal. "Flash Strike" I rushed forward, temporarily disappearing as I ran past my opponent. The gargoyle split into two from a horizontal cut across its stomach, then burst into data. As the last of its fragments disappeared, I turned to watch Sayoko and Tetsuya deliver the final blow to their opponent. Noticing that the other groups had failed to help us, something they should have done once they realized we weren't just blindly rushing to our deaths, I looked behind to find a room half full of stone spiders that were quickly overwhelming all but the strongest teams. The two KoB teams stood out amongst the chaos, loud noises and bright sparks generating every time a weapon hit one of the stone bugs. Against my better judgment, I left Yuuyu to watch the stone soldier as I rushed toward the other groups, Sayoko and Tetsuya following my lead and meeting with me just before the three of us swung our blades in perfect unison, three streaks of bright crimson emanating from our weapons as we activated similar skills. "Triple Crimson Raid" The three of us shouted as our weapons tore through the stone bodies of the spiders, quickly ending their lives before they could kill any more of our allies.

I heard a high-pitched screech from behind me as I slammed the edge of my blade through the last spider. When I turned around, Yuuyu was sitting on the ground, her axe the only thing preventing the massive stone claymore in the stone soldier's hands from cutting her in half.

"Catharsis: Leaping" At the price of a few hundred HP I momentarily vanished, reappearing directly above the stone soldier. The sudden attack prompted the soldier to take a few hasty steps back, giving Yuuyu enough time to stand up.

_**The Guardian**_

The name above the soldier identified it as the real boss of this floor. It stood nearly 30 feet tall and wielded a stone claymore almost twice its size.

"Makouken" I wasted no time charging pitch black energy around the edge of my katana as I swung at the soldier once more, chipping its sword when it blocked. I ducked around the weapon, which had managed to embed itself in the ground, and activated another sword skill. "Hienzan" I brought my sword up, then slashed five times at random angles. The soldier countered by bringing its blade up and down once more, missing me by inches. "Souteha" I slammed the palm of my empty hand against the soldier's sword, pushing the weapon away slightly and forcing yet another crack to appear.

"Critical Blade" Yuuyu came out of nowhere and slammed her axe down into the soldier's back.

"Bassai Hououzan" I dashed forward, slashing the soldier's legs as I moved past it. As I got behind the soldier I turned and jumped into the air, cut along the soldier's spine, then kicked off and landed next to Yuuyu.

"Crimson Devastation" Yuuyu's axe glowed dark red as she swung down hard into the back of the soldier's legs.

"Geppa Souteha" I held my hand out as the soldier attempted to a counterattack, making its sword bounce away harmlessly as I brought my katana up in a crescent shaped vertical slash, leaving a deep cut along the soldier's leg and forcing it to the ground.

As the final seconds of my swapping potion ran out, the remainder of the groups who could still fight began rushing toward our fight. The sound of metal and stone colliding quickly began to resonate throughout the room, though the sound of a player dying could be heard almost every time the soldier swung its sword. I kept a careful eye on the boss' HP bar, waiting until the perfect moment to activate a finishing skill. When I got my chance I swapped with Yuuyu and backed around the boss, hoping to catch it off guard.

"Catharsis: Singularity" I waited as my HP turned into additional damage for my katana, rushing toward the boss as my HP dropped to 1. My blade made a satisfying clang as it struck my opponent, forcing the soldier to reel back as the remainder of its HP drained from the gauge. As it exploded into data, a message popped up in front of me displaying the katana I had received from the LAB, but I ignored it, instead looking behind me at our badly beaten raid party. Out of the 40 members who started the fight, only 12 remained. While I was happy that my guildmates had survived, 28 high level players had ceased to exist.

As my HP bar began to slowly regenerate, I was almost dropped back to 1 when Yuuyu attempted to hug me to death.

"Why… Why did you use Singularity, Kou-kun? Why do you keep putting yourself in danger like that?" Yuuyu began frantically questioning me as she cried against my chest.

"Sorry Yu-chan… for making you worry about me so much…" I hung my head slightly and returned her embrace, trying to let her know that I wouldn't leave her alone so easily.

"Be more careful next time." Yuuyu brought her smiling, tearstained face up to look at mine.

"And it wouldn't hurt to rely on us a bit more!" Tetsuya shouted enthusiastically from pointblank range.

"Says the other person who charged in ahead of us…" Sayoko chided him.

"It's not like it hurt anyone that much… Physically, I mean." The glares Tetsuya received from the girls forced him to falter midsentence and correct himself.

"We rely on you girls more than you realize, and not just in battles." I calmly stated. "I would've lost all hope by now if Yu-chan hadn't been by my side the whole time." I smiled brightly, prideful that one of my few reasons to continue living in this game was currently sharing her warmth with my left arm. I turned my head to look down at her. "One day, I'll become fast enough that you won't ever get hurt…" I whispered my promise to her.

"Then I'll become stronger. Strong enough to protect you in battle _and_ peace." Yuuyu smiled brightly as she countered my promise with her own, making me laugh softly before hugging her tightly once more.

"Oi, lovebirds!" We planning on popping the gate open soon, or should we just let you have some alone time down here?" As usual, Tetsuya's insensitive comment broke us apart, dark blushes spreading across our faces as we headed toward the gate to the next floor.

**Well that was… awkwardly romantic. I didn't think I had it in me to write fluff like that, even if it was a bit odd. While I'm on the topic of my awkward OC shipping, I originally wanted to make Yuuyu come across as a spacey, easily distracted, and just generally overly energetic person to counter Shinkou being… well, Shinkou. Turns out, giving Yuuyu a massive intelligence boost before putting her in the fanfic made her an even better character than I thought.**

**On that note, it's time for my usual explanations-that-turn-into-wordy-lectures-because-I-like-explaining-in-detail section.**

**This chapter brought up a few things. First off is LABs (Last Attack Bonuses). A LAB is a special (though often not much more powerful than the currently equipped items) reward for inflicting the final point of damage to a boss. Because HP bars have a lag time when receiving heavy damage, the engine that runs SAO (also known as Cardinal) basically has a calculator attached to the HP bar. This calculator is perfectly synchronized with the damage the boss receives, keeping a highly accurate record of who hit last and how hard they hit, then giving an equipment reward in addition to extra EXP and Col to whoever inflicts the last point of damage.**

**Next up, Shinkou's Catharsis skills. Last chapter I promised to explain his signature skills that will be getting some heavy abuse later. I originally came across the idea of his skills while playing one of my favorite games (Tales of Vesperia) where the main caster has a passive ability that trades her already low HP for MP. Because SAO doesn't run off of a mana system, I thought "Huh, what else can I do that would be worth sacrificing HP in a death game?", and before long I had thought up a set of skills that traded HP for various benefits. Under the effects of these skills, Shinkou is essentially trading his life for momentary boosts to certain aspects of fighting, so it's not like he's able to just walk around spamming Singularity on every basic enemy he encounters. I should also probably point out that the effects of any given Catharsis skill last until either a) the aspect that is improved is used (like a jump attack for Leaping), or b) another Catharsis skill is activated. In the case of Singularity, which boosts the damage of Shinkou's next attack, the effect lasts until the end of the attack, not the first strike (because screw the rules, I have combos).**

**To those of you who are reading this fanfic and don't know the KoB, I feel sorry for you. The KoB, or Knights of the Blood Oath, is one of the most powerful guilds in SAO, and is the guild that Asuna, and eventually Kirito, is a part of. Not trying to make my OC guild seem broken, but the relative strength of the two guilds is fairly close despite the massive difference in the number of players each guild has recruited.**

**And now the last item for explanation in this chapter, raid parties. Similar to a normal party, raid parties gather for a specific reason, usually a high level event or a floor boss. Raid parties can consist of between 8 and several thousand players, though the average raid party is no more than 100, and even that is rare. Despite the higher number of people involved, raid parties are actually much more organized if the leader is competent, and most raid parties are just small clusters of players who organize from several guilds, so everyone involved tends to know something about how to work well with the rest of the group to complete the common goal.**

**Now that explanations are finished, I can finally drop a few partial spoilers for the next chapter. Someone very special to Yuuyu will finally make her long hinted at appearance, we get to stalk Shinkou through his daily life, and we find out how much strain the relationships between the OCs can take before breaking.**

**See you next time, and please review if you can.**


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